Oligarchs under EU and US sanctions linked to £200m in UK property
Oligarchs under sanctions in the EU and US have been linked to almost £200m of property in London and the home counties, a Guardian analysis has found, as Boris Johnson came under mounting pressure from Labour to step up financial curbs.
Among those sanctioned by the EU in recent days over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, who separately own mansions in London and Surrey. Both men stepped down from the board of their private investment group, LetterOne, on Tuesday.
Aven, who is business partners with Fridman, attended a business meeting with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin last week, which his spokesperson said he was required to do. He purchased the plot of Ingliston House in Virginia Water in the 2000s, for an estimated £8m, where he has spoken of housing a vast art collection. The property is owned through a company.
Fridman bought and still owns Athlone House in north London, paying £65m for the property in 2016, according to the Land Registry.
A spokesperson for both men said the justifications for EU sanctions “were simply and demonstrably false” and stressed that the pair were in no way involved in politics, have condemned the war and would contest the allegations. Fridman has previously said he did not know whether he would face sanctions in the UK and hoped it would not happen.
Igor Shuvalov, a former Russian deputy prime minister who chairs Russia’s state development bank, is also said to be a London-property owner under EU sanctions. He was named in the House of Commons by Labour as owning two flats in Westminster, bought for an estimated £11m.
On Wednesday, Keir Starmer said the only reason Shuvalov was known to be the real owner of the flats was because it was revealed by the jailed
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